


What Child is This?

by SniperMoran



Series: Some Nights [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas holiday, Unforgivable Curses (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 17:18:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12988749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SniperMoran/pseuds/SniperMoran
Summary: The fateful Christmas holiday, when everything changed.Some nights, home is a safe and quiet place.Some nights, home is loud and painful.Some nights things don't turn out how they shouldSome nights are better than others.





	What Child is This?

Christmas Holidays at Grimauld Place, 1976

It was a rather tense holiday, and it'd barely begun. Being at home, these days, always seemed to be tense and cold. It wasn't like there was ever much warmth in this place for Sirius to begin with, but it seemed only to be worse since he started his time at Hogwarts these 4 years ago.  
He stuck to his room, trying to keep his head down best he could. He would hear Creature outside his door now and then, scuttling around and dusting things.  
He hated this place. Hated it with everything he could muster. He wished he could just stay at Hogwarts, wished he could visit James or Remus... Anything would be better than this.  
In his attempts to keep his head down, he'd lost track of the days and was spooked from his thoughts as a soft knock came to his door.  
"Sirius? There's a family meeting soon...Mummy wants you to be there. Please don't ignore her, this time," Reg's voice called calmly through the door.  
Sirius huffed and pulled his blankets tightly around himself. "I don't have to dress nice, do I?" he asked, his voice a bit gruff from all his time of not using it.  
"It would probably be preferable..." Reg called again, clearly pressed against Sirius' door to speak with him.  
The answer was not what he'd hoped for, but he had expected it and he gave a grumbled noise of acceptance. "Yeah, fine, awright. I'll get on dressed then and be down in a tick," he sighed, pushing himself up from the warm safety of his bed.  
When he didn't hear the shuffle of Regulus leaving, Sirius dragged a hand down his face and got up, opening the door to his room and watched as Regulus almost comically fell into his arms. "Going to stick around and make sure I do as I said I would, Regs?" Sirius asked bemusedly, a perfect brow cocked in question or challenge.  
Regulus, flustered from practically tumbling into his brother's room, righted himself and brushed himself off indignantly. "Yes, that was the plan. I won't have Mummy being upset with you when I can very well convince you to get a move on. So, get a move on!"  
Rolling his eyes, Sirius made his way across his room to strip out of his comfortable clothes that Remus had given him. He tossed them on his bed before grabbing his nicer clothes from the wardrobe and threw them on. He returned to Regulus, who got on his tip toes to fix Sirius' hair a bit.  
"Fine, you look presentable. It should be fine enough."  
"/Fine enough/? I look gorgeous, Reggie. No need to shunt me a compliment because you're jealous or whatnot," he teased lightly as he moved past him into the hallway. "Come on, let's get this over with, shall we?" he asked, looking at Regulus expectantly.  
The younger boy, after seemingly being pulled from his thoughts, followed along behind his brother. They made their way to the dining room, where their mother, father and other variously related people were all sat.  
Walburga stood and eyed Sirius, her eyes wracking over him, nodding in somewhat approval.  
"Thank you, Reggie darling. I'm afraid you're too young yet for this meeting, so run along off upstairs like a good boy for Mummy," she purred, giving her younger son a look as close to loving as Walburga Black could muster.  
Regulus glanced nervously up at Sirius, giving a slight nod before slipping from the room, the stairs creaking to signal his ascent.  
"What's all this then? Some coming of age thing?" Sirius asked finally, still standing in the doorway as all eyes fell on him.  
Walburga's wicked gaze narrowed and she let out a breath before speaking. "It's come time for you to choose your alliances, Sirius. To choose your side in this war. We expect you to side with the family--"  
"You mean side with the Dark Lord," Sirius corrected, a rather unamused expression on his features. "I'll make it simple for you, then, seeing as it hasn't quite set in: I'm not planning to side with you crazy lot and your 'Lord'. I'm taking the side of--"  
But before he could finish, his words were cut off as a scream tore through him. His mother's wand was pointed at him, a disgusted look marring her face as she watched her eldest crumble beneath the excruciating pain of the Unforgivable curse.  
"You /will/ stay by your family, child. You are to be the /heir/ and you must stand by your family in this time of need," she snarled, pressing her wand forward, dragging further screams from Sirius who was now writhing on the ground.  
Sirius began to sob, his words mostly unintelligible, except for the repeated 'no'.  
She screamed in frustration and pushed further, Orion got up from the table and stood there, gripping the edge and watching. "Sirius Black, you are our /son/. This is your /family/. You /will/ join us. You /will/ accept your responsibilities and join the war efforts or you will /not/ be living under this roof!"  
Sirius sobbed, tugging at his hair to fight uncontrollable pain with controllable pain. It of course wasn't working as well as he'd originally hoped, but he continued to sob out 'no'.  
"Walburga..." Orion's voice cut through like butter and his eyes found her's as she released her son with a slight huff.

Sirius sobbed, still, curling in on himself there on the ground, his body still tingling and his nerve endings going berserk. He felt as if he'd been nearly split in two and then released, only for the two bits to try reattaching to one another.  
There had been studies to say this was roughly what it was to feel the transformation of a werewolf, and Sirius would never miss being at Remus' bedside after a full moon again.  
"If...if those...are my only...two choices..." he gasped out, struggling with every syllable, to ensure that each one was said properly and clearly. "Then I won't....I bloody won't...live under this /fucking/ excuse...of a roof..." he breathed, somehow able to find his sass through all the fucking pain.  
Wouldn't be Sirius Black without some sort of dramatic bullshit or sass, of course.  
Walburga glared at the broken thing on her floor as if Sirius were a piece of trash dirtying her finely established household. She picked up the nearest heavy object and started to throw things in his general direction.  
With a yelp, and a burst of strength he hadn't realized he still had left, Sirius slid into the fireplace and threw Floo powder to his feet, speaking the address of the Potter's residence.  
A green flame erupted beneath him, swallowing him whole and he was gone, just as the china smashed into the back of the fireplace and a frustrated shout escaped Walburga.

Sirius was free. He was sure the Potter's would have a right time with him, the state he was in, but he couldn't think of anywhere else to go.  
James jumped up from the floor where he'd been sat as the dark haired, broken boy tumbled from the fireplace. "Sirius?!" he exclaimed, as he and his parents rushed to his side.

 

The holidays were a blur, after that. A blur of being doted upon by Mrs. Potter, and watching James practice for the Quidditch team. Sirius mainly sat and watched, or kept to himself in the spare bedroom the Potter's had allotted to be his own.  
He couldn't wait to be back to school and put the horrible holiday behind him...


End file.
